


Elsa the Snow Queen

by MoonSilverSprite



Category: Frozen (2013), Sneedronningen | The Snow Queen - Hans Christian Andersen
Genre: Alternate Ending, Angst, Childhood, Fairy Tale Retellings, Family, Friendship, Isolation, Kidnapping, Self-Doubt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-08
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-01-07 02:06:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 8,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18400952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonSilverSprite/pseuds/MoonSilverSprite
Summary: What if Elsa had not waited around to see Anna become human again? What if she had run away again, utterly miserable? Rumours of a wicked ice queen spread far and wide and Elsa is demonized when all she feels is absolute loneliness and guilt. Looking for a friend, she stumbles across Kai, a young boy from the Southern Isles. Here is what happened to Kai and Elsa when she was the Snow Queen.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> As much as I enjoyed Frozen when it was released in cinemas, I couldn't help but think that I would have liked to see an actual retelling of my favourite fairy tale as a child.
> 
> I first heard the story of 'The Snow Queen' on a fairytale collection of cassette tapes whose name escapes me. I used to listen to these tapes at night as bedtime stories. This story seemed wonderful to me with its strange snow woman and the journey one little girl takes to save her friend, or brother in some versions. The tale of 'Frozen' definitely kept that and I do love the movie, but my love for the fairy tale remains.
> 
> The first chapter is a little slow, but the pace will begin to build up in future chapters.

She ran.

She ran from the icy fjord when she saw that her sister was now a statue of ice. Elsa could not bear to be anywhere close to Arendelle.

If she had stayed, she would have seen her sister become human again. If she had stayed, she would have seen Kristoff take Anna back inside while Sven pushed and prodded Hans.

If Elsa had stayed, instead of deciding to lift the frost a week later, considering that it would have been what Anna wanted, after she had fixed up her ice palace and taught herself to melt the snow, she would have seen her sister nursed back to health, Hans sent back to the Southern Isles and Arendelle open to the world again.

But she did not stay.

Anna was told that her sister had died. That her body had been found in the wilderness. It was easier for her, the soldiers told themselves, than to risk going out to find the disgraced royal again. Besides, Elsa would probably freeze or starve to death, anyway.

Elsa lived up at the castle completely alone. She found a wolf cub and raised him, training him to hunt. Within time, she taught more wolves to obey her, as she was the Snow Queen and she was triumphant in her territory.

Elsa made herself a new dress when hers grew worn. This one was now almost white, with shorter sleeves as she wore fur around her arms. This fur had been from the various woodland creatures that the wolves had killed, mixed in with snow and frost to be a shimmering white.

She made several of these outfits. The summer one did not have any fur involved – and she only used fur as leftovers from the wolves’ hunts in either the woods or the villages – and was perfect for swimming in her outdoor pool. The pool became an ice rink in the winter and even in summer, when she was fed up of the heat, she made herself a rink, sometimes with fruit juice added to make pretty colours.

One day, as she sipped at a Scotch on the rocks, she saw that her favourite wolf, her first wolf, had brought her back a present.

“What is it, boy?” she asked, picking it up. It was a leather-bound book, fairly new from the looks of it.

“Did you go into the town?” she asked, a little impressed. He nodded and she ruffled his fur. “Don’t get too cocky,” she smiled, “and be careful.”

She hadn’t read a book in so long. It was wonderful to pick one up, feel the paper beneath her fingers and thoroughly excite herself with the stories within.

Then she saw one chapter on Arendelle. It mentioned that the Queen, Queen Elsa, had retreated into the mountains after freezing the town, leaving everyone to die. That the country folk had given her a nickname for her supposed callousness.

The Snow Queen.

“That is what I shall call myself,” Elsa shrugged, “If they think me evil.”


	2. Chapter 2

The next few years passed in a slow haze.

Winter became summer, before back into winter. Elsa barely seemed to notice them. Her days were spent asking her wolves to find food for her, or barking orders at her snowmen.

She was, of course, still kind to them. She thanked the wolves for contributions and even turned snow into water for them if need be. _Ensure yourself as pack leader,_ she told herself.

Sometimes, though, she would make a tennis racket out of ice, or conjure skates from ice and wood. Then she would call out for Anna.

“Hey, Anna, come look at this!” Then she would remember Anna was dead.

After the third winter without her sister, Elsa had had enough.

She had smashed furniture and cutlery, turned snowmen into avalanches, made storms and even broke a chandelier.

Elsa realised that time was getting on. She wasn’t getting any younger.

She wanted her childhood back.

Her childhood, her innocent years, had disappeared in front of her eyes. While other boys and girls played to their heart’s content, Elsa had been too afraid of hurting those she loved to try and attempt to have fun.

And now, she was all grown up and yearned for games, for toys, for someone to play with.

Elsa pondered over her decision for days. Sitting in her throne, lying on her bed and staring at the ceiling, her thoughts were ever clouded by the one idea she mused over.

Then she ordered the wolves and snowmen to bring her a sleigh from the village. They came back with a dozen, some of which still had stains over them.

Elsa sniggered behind her hand at how sweet their gestures were. Picking the largest and most impressive of the sleighs, she grew a set of icy reins, with two tall poles at either side of the front, with a stylised snowflake built on top.

Using the fur of deceased cats from the various villages scattered about, she flung down cushions and rugs about the sleigh, harnessed some wild reindeer and set off into the sky, with the sleigh trundling along the frozen clouds above.

She flew south for quite a while, before they approached a large town. Elsa had almost fallen asleep at this point, but as they descended, she felt more awake as the wind blew through her hair.

Elsa asked the wolf lying under her seat where they were. He muttered something about ‘the Southern Isles’.

Where Hans was from, Elsa remembered with a start. This would make her plan even better.

She surveyed the children walking through the streets as they came home from Sunday School. Little boys and girls, walking two by two. Now, Elsa thought as she looked from above, which one should she take?

A little girl, maybe? She eyed some smiling, blonde children as they giggled together. Just as she and Anna had been, before it all went wrong.

Or perhaps a handsome young boy? Elsa looked upon some rowdy boys playfully shoving each other.

No, maybe not. They were a little big, perhaps thirteen or fourteen years old. Not one of the smaller ones, either, she mused, as her eyes lingered on a snotty, dark-haired girl sucking her thumb, who seemed to be maybe four or five years old. Younger children would only be louder.

She’d have a look at those in-between.

Looking closely as the children walked down various roads, the wolf pawed at her leg.

“Yes?” she asked, before the wolf pointed to his eye and then snarled. Elsa laughed, amused. “Oh, there’s a child here with glass in their eye? All right then. Lead on!”

She descended to the ground, somehow without anyone noticing her. Then the wolf pointed at two children walking into one of the houses.

They were a boy with dark blonde hair and a girl with thick, brown hair. They seemed to be aged about nine or ten years old. The boy held his coat about himself, grumbling, as the girl complained behind him, begging.

“Kai!” she moaned, “Please, have sense!”

“No!” he pushed her away, glaring down at her. “Leave me alone.”

Elsa smiled to herself, before she ducked down and grinned at her wolf. “Do you suppose…” she asked him, before she ruffled his fur.

The next day, Elsa watched from the forest as she saw children playing with the snow. Looking about, she could see children throwing snowballs at each other, skating or making snowmen.

Then she saw the boy. Sweet, wonderful little Kai. She had her eyes set on this lovely boy.

Slowly allowing her sleigh to emerge from the forest, she wrapped her furs around her and directed the reindeer to Kai. Elsa watched as he attached his led to the back of her sleigh, as she had noticed children do if they wanted to get back to town quickly.

Then she set off further down the hillside. But instead of going into the town, she pulled the reins and the sleigh skidded to a halt.

Kai, confused, stepped off from his sled and looked up at Elsa. She was immediately taken in by how much taller he seemed in person. Only about ten years old, but quite well-built. It reminded her of Kristoff.

“Why have we stopped?” he sounded a little rude, but also rather confused. Elsa could understand that.

“I do not wish for you to get hurt. My reindeer can be brutal and you might have fallen from your sled,” she held her coat out and gestured to her seat, “come, sit with me.”

Nervously, Kai stepped forward and sat down beside her.

“Is that a wolf?” he squeaked.

Elsa just gave a haughty laugh. “Oh, he does not bite. When I tell him not to.”

The wolf rolled his eyes and lay on his paws.

“Are you still cold?” she asked. When he nodded, Elsa closed her eyes and concentrated.

She had not done this on a human before and she truly hoped that it might work. Pull the cold towards you, she told herself. She placed her lips closer to his head and, as if sucking out poison from an infected wound, drew the cold up from his shivering body and into her own.

Kai suddenly felt much better. Smiling up at her, he thanked her.

“It was not a problem,” she told him, as she lashed her reins and they set off into the air, the sled hanging off the back of her sleigh, “but you must relax, Kai.”

“How –“ he started to ask, but Elsa placed a finger between his eyes. Suddenly, his eyes turned a vivid blue and he settled back onto her seat. Thoughts of his grandmother and Gerda and all of the things that had been troubling him were hidden at the back of his subconscious. His only concern was lying down with the Snow Queen.

By the time they arrived at Elsa’s palace, just before midnight, Kai had already told Elsa that he could do mental arithmetic and fractions and knew the number of square miles in the country and all of the inhabitants.

“And who is your king?” Elsa had smiled sweetly.

“King Bendt. He is old and wise. He has thirteen sons, the Crown Prince and the three spares, with nine others who own land all over the world, ma’am. In darkest Africa and the islands of the Mediterranean –“

“But that only makes twelve. Where is the last prince?” Elsa quietly laughed to herself, knowing what his answer would be.

Kai shrugged. “They said he was mad and cruel. That he murdered a princess from a land far to the north.”

“Oh, did he now?” Elsa scowled playfully, refusing to let her emotions get in the way.

He nodded. “There is a statue of her in front of the castle where she lived. She was apparently very beautiful. The prince was locked away in a castle on the mainland, with only five servants to serve him. He is to stay there until he dies.”

 _He deserves it,_ Elsa frowned silently.

At her ice palace, Elsa led Kai through the great door and up the stairs. She opened the door to the room she had prepared and let him gaze around in wonder and awe. Elsa had placed furs on a large block of ice, carved in the shape of a couch. Two more furs, as well as a few pillows, were on top of another block shaped like a four-poster bed, with thin curtains made from ice surrounding it. A small wooden box of toys and games, collected from the villages, sat beside it. From the window, Kai could see for miles across the snowy mountains.

“Thank you so much!” he hugged her, tightly.

Her arms flew up in surprise. She had never been hugged like this in a long time.

Not since Anna used to, before her accident.

She pushed the thoughts of her beloved sister from her head, as she comfortingly held the little boy close to her chest. “You are welcome.” She whispered, closing her eyes and letting happiness wash over her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quite a bit of their interaction when they meet and in the sleigh itself is taken from the original story. One of the problems those adapting the story have is when the titular Snow Queen kisses Kai, who can't be older than fourteen and possibly as young as eight or nine. This means that most adaptions of this story have aged Kai up slightly.
> 
> I'm actually relieved that I altered it just enough to stay close to the source material without looking creepy. The last time I had to write a scene where an older woman interacts this way with an underage boy on this site...did _not_ go well, trust me.


	3. Chapter 3

The days seemed to pass in a blur for both Elsa and Kai.

They would eat together at breakfast and dinner in the dining room, as the wolves brought along the prepared food on a large sled. Elsa explained that the food she gave to him was all stolen from the towns and villages scattered about the mountains.

“Although I may have to go further,” she had told him on the first morning, “since the villagers are getting wise to the wolves’ thefts.”

Then Kai would play with Elsa.

She would create snowmen out of thin air, to which Kai found wonderful. He had been a little afraid when the snowmen had started moving about of their own accord, but he soon laughed with joy.

Which pleased Elsa immensely.

Some days, they would sit together on a toboggan, with Elsa holding her arms about Kai’s chest as they slid down. If the ride down seemed a little unsatisfactory, Elsa would create a new one out of ice. But she was careful above all to keep Kai safe.

If he died, like Anna, she didn’t know if she would be able to survive.

As the winter faded and the snow melted outside on the mountainside, Elsa asked Kai if he wanted her to spread some more frost for them to play with. He had shrugged, replying that he didn’t really mind.

But Elsa did not create more snow and ice. She did not want to try and make everything dull and repetitive for him. He may get bored and ask to go home.

She wondered exactly how her kiss, as she called it, had worked. She saw him moping sometimes, when they were throwing snowballs at each other or building snowmen. She had heard him call out a name in his sleep.

Gerda.

He seemed to remember his dearest friend and his grandmother. But he didn’t let it spoil his fun. Then Elsa saw, one day, when she was helping him in and out of his sauna, something shining in his left eye.

Curiously, she took a better look. She asked, “Kai, can I just look at your eye for a second?”

He let her move his eyelid about as she saw something deep inside. A piece of glass, shimmering between purple and blue, almost like ice itself.

She frowned in concentration as she tried to think of where it may have come from.

Then she took Kai to his bedroom. “Can I have a story tonight?” he asked her.

“Sorry,” she apologized, “I have to do something. I need to visit a friend of mine.”

“But Elsa…” he whined.

“Listen, just go to sleep!” she found herself snapping. He shrank under the covers and she placed her hands on her head.

“Oh, Kai, I’m sorry – I didn’t mean it like that.” She gabbled, pulling the furs around him as he tugged away from her.

“I’m fine, Elsa.” He murmured, although he didn’t sound happy.

When Elsa shut the door behind her, her eyes didn’t leave his tiny form as she worried.

Elsa flew her sleigh over the forest as she looked about for the trolls’ home. When she saw it, she descended rapidly, her reindeer’s hooves clattering roughly on the ground.

Elsa got out of the sleigh, threw her cloak about her and scanned the boulders angrily. Her hands creating small wisps of snow, just in case, she called out, “I know you are here, trolls! Come and face me! I need to speak to you on a matter of urgency.”

She waited, hearing tiny, afraid whispers.

“Reveal yourselves! I can hear you!” she shouted again.

Four or five pairs of eyes looked out from the boulders as they stood upright. The trolls glumly stood there, hopeless.

“I will not hurt any of you,” Elsa reassured them, her voice still dripping with authority, “but I wish to know why there is a piece of glass embedded in Kai’s eye.”

“Who?” one of the trolls asked.

Elsa rolled her eyes, calmed herself and began to explain about Kai. By the time she had finished, the trolls looked at each other with worry and fear. Then one of them spoke up.

“Queen Elsa,” he trembled, “that shard is from a mirror that smashed many years ago. The mirror – some other trolls, wicked trolls, carried it up towards Heaven.”

Elsa raised an eyebrow. “Go on.”

“Well,” he wrung his hands, too scared to look her directly in the eye, “we managed to stop it. But the mirror smashed into thousands of tiny pieces. We were so high up that it flew all over the world. Sometimes it hit people in the eye and all they saw were wicked things, distorted things. Nothing made them happy any more. They would lock themselves away and feel miserable, unable to trust anyone or love anyone.”

“Sometimes,” a female troll interrupted, “the shard hit their bones and made them unable to work. So many people have been mocked because their bodies no longer functioned properly.”

“And sometimes,” a third troll spoke, “the shard would pierce their hearts and make them bitter and ruthless. One of those, I am afraid to say, caused all of your heartbreak and made you who you are today.”

_Hans…_

“But that was years ago,” Elsa was confused, “has Kai really been miserable for years?”

“I do not think so,” Pabby came out from behind the trees, with other trolls walking on either side, as he held his head high and explained with deep regret, “it is entirely possible that some of the shards floated with the water cycle, down from the clouds in the rain and have only just affected people. Sadly, the water cycle is never-ending, so the remaining shards will continue to hurt people for years to come.”

“But how can I save Kai?” Elsa asked.

“You drew the cold from him, did you not?” Pabby held Elsa’s hand in his own, the same way he had done his best to comfort her parents, “This made the glass in his eye harden and combine with your spell. If the glass ever leaves his eye, he will want for his old life again.”

Elsa was torn inside.

On the one hand, if she freed him from his misery, Kai would wish to go home and she would have lost another companion. But if she allowed him to stay, to be her prince, to look after her in her old age, he would see everything as wicked and unbearable.

Everything except her.

Pabby looked Elsa in the eyes and tried to persuade her. “Your Highness, you must do what is right.”

Elsa looked right at him and glared.

Wordlessly, she swept her cloak about her and returned to her sleigh. Gripping the reins, she whipped the reindeer and they flew off into the sky.

Holding her hand just outside of the sleigh, she concentrated as fierce, cruel icicles battered down, through the treetops and smashing into the ground.

They could talk, she told himself, to push away any feelings of doubt. They took Kristoff. How could they tell me to let a child go, when they altered his mind and stole him from his family, as she had learnt by reading the book her wolf had found. True, it was entirely possible that Kristoff did not actually have a family, simply joining the ice harvesters to have people to care for him. But take him they did and they had been as bad as she was.

When Elsa returned home, she was irritated. Lying down on a glided sofa made of ice, she held a cushion – stolen from a nearby town – to her face and screamed.

“Elsa?”

She lowered the cushion slowly, one eyebrow raised. It was Kai. Forcing a smile onto her face, she sat up and held her hand out.

“Kai. I’m sorry. Come, sit beside me.”

As he shuffled onto the sofa, he asked, “What is wrong, Elsa?”

“I – just had a little problem with some trolls.”

“Trolls?” he asked. When she nodded, he grinned and cried, “Cool!”

She smiled again, with feeling this time. But what could she do for Kai? She wanted him to be happy, but she didn’t want to sacrifice her own happiness.

“I know,” she told him, “how would you like to wear an eyepatch? You’d look just like a pirate.”

He thought about this for a second, before he smiled. “Great!”

She made him a patch from another cushion, this one a dark blue with a purple stripe around the edges, as he liked the colour so much. When she slotted the patch into place over his left eye, all of her troubles melted away. She could no longer see the piece of glass that bore her so much agony.


	4. Chapter 4

The months floated by like snowflakes in the breeze.

Elsa was almost certain that it was spring outside and then summer. Kai was growing taller and taller. Elsa had marked his height on a pillar with an inkpen. He had grown two inches since she had brought him here.

Kai had an idea to create some sculptures in the summer.

Two birds intertwined on an icy helix, an elephant blowing its trunk over the garden, with ice trickling out of it like a hose, a row of ice butterflies on a hedge. Kai was amazed that this did not melt in the summer.

“You sound like Olaf,” she giggled.

Kai turned his head to face her, confused. “Who is Olaf?”

Elsa remembered Olaf’s broken body on the stones at the foot of the mountain, just before the wolf ate his carrot nose. “Oh, just a snowman I made. It doesn’t matter.”

As the summer began to fade and the leaves on the trees outside of the castle turned to brown, floating down into piles on the ground, Kai seemed a little more distant than usual. He didn’t eat as much and he turned over in bed when Elsa read him bedtime stories.

“Kai, what’s the matter?” she asked, concerned. He murmured, his voice muffled by the fur, “I’m lonely.”

“Kai?” she raised an eyebrow.

He moved back around to face her. “Elsa, you’re great. Don’t get me wrong. But – I sometimes wish I had a friend here. I – I keep seeing her in my head.”

“Her?” Elsa’s heart beat faster, remembering the girl she had seen Kai with.

He nodded, biting his lip. “Don’t do that,” she eased his hand away, “you’ll tear it. Listen, I’ll go and look for a friend for you, okay? So that we’re not alone in this castle.”

“But not just _a_ friend,” he whispered to himself, “ _Her_. The girl in my dream.”

The next day, Elsa searched far.

She flew her sleigh over the mountains to look. She didn’t dare go close to Arendelle, to take a child from there. There was a reason she didn’t go near there again.

She didn’t want to take a child from the Southern Isles, either. Kai might recognise them and want to go home. Elsa chose to go to the other end of the mountain range, somewhere between the two countries.

“Your Highnesses, this girl from the Southern Isles wishes to speak to you.”

The servant stepped aside as Anna and Kristoff stared at the small, ragged and barefoot girl in front of them. The girl opened her eyes wide and then gabbled, “Oh, please forgive me! I think I made a mistake.”

Anna asked, “What do you mean?”

Gerda blushed and explained, “Well, I’m looking – for someone. A boy. Kai. He’s wonderful. Anyway, he disappeared last winter and I _would_ have gone immediately to look for him, but I ended up in this witch’s garden and when I came out, it was autumn and –“

She stopped and drew breath, her hair falling into her eyes. She blew it out of the way and pulled it behind her ear. Anna was reminded somewhat of herself.

Gerda then coughed and stood up straight. “Anyway, I heard that there was a handsome young prince here who had married a princess. I asked what he looked like and – well, he – looks like _you_ , Your Majesty.”

Kristoff was taken aback. “Your friend looks like me?” Then he asked, "Is he handsome as well?"

Anna held the tips of her fingers over her mouth to mask her laughter.

Gerda nodded, eagerly. “Yes. I – I guess this was a wasted journey. The – _creatures_ I have met told me that Kai was taken by the Snow Queen and I should really have guessed –“

Anna held her hand up. “Wait,” she asked, “The Snow Queen?” With wide eyes, she turned to Kristoff, who shared the same, terrified look. “Excuse me, Gerda, but I believe we may help somehow. My husband and I need to talk in private.”

In the adjoining room, as soon as Anna shut the door, she looked desperately at Kristoff. “That’s what people have been calling Elsa, isn’t it?”

“Anna, we can’t be sure…” Kristoff began, but Anna interrupted, furious.

“I know that the hunters said they found her dead, but I don’t think they were telling the truth. We need to interrogate them,” Anna seemed much scarier than Kristoff had ever seen her, “If she took the boy, it makes sense. She wants me. But she can’t have _me_. She wants to be a little girl again. So she takes a child. A child from the Southern Isles. A child from Hans’ country; to somehow take revenge. Kristoff, we _have_ to help that girl. Get a carriage for her. Have search parties look for my sister. _I’ll_ sort out the torture.”

By the time Anna stood at the doorway to the dungeon, arms crossed, the soldiers who had chosen to lie to her were already on the racks.

The door closed behind her, the only sound the noise her heels made when she slowly walked over.

"Why?" she asked before the wheel was turned.

"Why?" she demanded when the soldiers said that they didn't want to have to look for a terrifying woman who could freeze them all in a heartbeat.

"Why?" she sobbed when the bloodied and bruised soldiers begged for mercy.

_I will find you, Elsa,_ Anna promised silently, her eyes closed and her hands loosening the grip on the rack, _No matter how far I will look._


	5. Chapter 5

Elsa watched Kai as he pushed a toy sled down a miniature snowy hill she had made. Kai started to enjoy playing with the toy sleds and carriages, especially when Elsa made tiny snowhorses to pull them.

He kept scratching at his eyepatch all the time. Elsa could tell that he seemed uncomfortable. The glass kept digging into his eye and he moaned at night, tossing and turning in his bed.

She knew that it was absolute pain for him. But if she took it out, he would resent her. He would see her as a monster.

Was she a monster?

Elsa didn’t know any more. She had been trying to please herself, but had she actually been selfish?

Kai seemed happy, when he was knocking down tin soldiers with giant snowballs rolling down a slope. Or when he was using a drum made out of ice that she had created. But she had seen him once in the sauna, when she had opened the door a peek. He had held his head in his hands, his hair flopping over, letting out a small cry.

Elsa wasn’t sure if the memories of his old life were leaking back, but nevertheless, she knew that he didn’t want to stay here.

_I could bring the girl here,_ she thought to herself, _and they could play all day._

But that would make the whole mess even bigger.

“I want him to stay,” she told herself as she sat out on the balcony one night, gazing at the stars glistening above, “I want my childhood back.”

_You can’t turn back the clock,_ a nasty little thought niggled at the back of her head, _There’s a reason it’s called nostalgia. You want to be happy, to be safe –_

“I was never safe!” Elsa found herself shouting at thin air, letting it echo around her, standing up and sweeping her coat aside, “Anna was never safe.”

_Stop focusing on Anna!_ Her voice snapped, _She’s in the past. Didn’t you say yourself, ‘the past is in the past’?_

“Well, yes –“

_You can’t make another Anna! You had your chance and you blew it. You deserve to stay up here for the rest of your life alone._

Elsa felt her wolf sit down beside her and she started stroking his fur as she looked out at the world beyond the ice palace. “I was never given a chance.” Her eyes started to well up and she squeezed them shut, brushing away tears with the back of her hand.

_If you truly love Kai,_ her voice told her, _If you are still good inside, prove to everyone that you’re not the wicked witch they say you are, you’ll let him go._

Elsa didn’t want to argue.

But love is a mysterious thing. Her love for Anna seemed to have multiplied since her death. Those memories of being young and happy and carefree with her little sister were slowly fading away. She couldn’t even remember her sister’s voice any more.

Anna had died too young. She had died in such horrible circumstances that Elsa would never understand.

Was it really fair to let another family, another sister, go through the same pain that she knew all too well?

Part of her was screaming that yes, she should, to let other people know how much she suffered. But another part, a much more rational part of her, said that if she knew how bad the suffering was, how awful it was to live in this limbo, going from day to day with no purpose, mourning her sister who hadn’t even said goodbye to her, then why should she deny this boy a chance?

“I can’t deny my love for Anna,” she wept, curling up her hand and placing her nails near her mouth, her eyes again closed, “and I can’t deny my love for Kai. But – if I love them both – I can let them go.”

She drew herself up and then looked down at the wolf. “What do you think? Should I let him go?” she asked.

The wolf looked simply annoyed and held his nose high as he strode back in.

Elsa snorted. That little piece of fur and teeth didn’t know anything. She brought him up as a cold monster. There was no way that she could force Kai to live like this.

She didn’t even care what happened to her afterwards. Maybe she could let the cold take her. Maybe she would let the wolves gang up on their pack leader and kill her. Maybe someone would finally come across the evil Snow Queen and the world would know that she would have been no more of a threat.

But whatever her future held, it was a future without Kai.

Whoever had the frozen heart, she decided, Kai had melted hers.

“What exactly is down here?” Gerda held her shawl about herself as she followed the crazy, scruffy girl down through the cave steps.

“Not anything _you’d_ be interested in. Just a bunch of junk that the robbers don’t want any more. Or didn’t find interesting enough to sell.” The little robber-girl smiled at Gerda as she lit a candle and placed it inside an upside-down jam jar with pieces of coloured paper dotted around, showering the whole cave in multi-coloured lights.

Gerda was amazed at how much there was here. Chests of drawers stuffed with old clothes and cushions, crates and boxes with straw and china wedged inside, rolled up carpets from far off lands lay higgledy-piggledy about the room. There were some old books caked in dust and cobwebs shoved inside what had presumably been a carriage, only now three of its wheels were missing and the door was coming off the hinges. Old food containers and beer barrels now had strange antiques shoved in. A fork was used in place of a third candle on a candelabra.

Gerda had to admit, this place seemed very imaginative.

“This is my comfy room,” the robber-girl bragged, relaxing down onto a sofa, “and it’s fancy, to boot. You and me, we’re going to be great friends.”

Gerda paused for a moment before she admitted, “This is – very, very kind of you, don’t get me wrong. And it was wonderful for you to – persuade those – fiends and ruffians – oh dear.”

The robber-girl snickered, sounding like a cross between a pig snorting and a horse laughing. “Those buffoons? Ha! Haven’t got half a brain between the lot of them. They all do what my dad says. And since I’m his little princess, they don’t dare go against me. Not since I broke the arm of his best man when he wouldn’t give me three broken glass bottles and half a pack of biscuits. Not bad for a nine-year-old!” She laughed again.

Seeing Gerda’s long face, she cried, “What’s the matter? Should I have left you to be thrown into an icy river?”

“Oh, no!” Gerda held her hands up, shaking them, “I – I was looking for my friend. He – people said that the Snow Queen took him.”

“Oh, old Snow Queen Elsa, eh?” The robber-girl picked up a book from the floor and opened to where it detailed the history of Arendelle. “I don’t recall much about before she was Queen. Why should I? I had just turned five. Na, Dad remembers it. Said the winter was so bad that my ma – my ma –“

Gerda swallowed and placed a hand on the girl’s shoulder. “Go on,” she offered, caringly.

The robber-girl wiped her nose on her sleeve. “I’m sorry. I just get caught up in these things.” She gave a half-heartedly little giggle. “My ma died in the cold. My dad was so furious that he started stealing things. Even though before they got married, she told him to stop taking other people’s goods. He didn’t care any more. So he rode off with me, started up his highway gang with some of his mates from the town around the castle. They’ve been robbing travellers ever since. Mind you, I’d swear that this cave has the contents of half of Arendelle itself. No-one new comes along these parts.” She paused. “Apart from you.”

“Could you help me?” Gerda begged. “I need to save Kai. Please, help me!”

The robber-girl raised an eyebrow. “This must be some pretty special guy for you to want to travel all this way for. Sure, why not? Beats being stuck here with a bunch of drunk guys and eating reindeer meat.”

As they saddled up the reindeer outside, Gerda asked, "What should I call you? Robber-girl can't really be your name."

The girl shrugged. "They called me the robber baron's daughter. I don't know what a robber baron is. I'm not even sure _they_ know what a robber baron is. Just call me 'robber-girl'."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some of this chapter came from the Alan Menken song for the movie, when it was still known as The Snow Queen. The song, named 'Love Can't Be Denied' is on YouTube.
> 
> When I was trying to imagine the robber-girl character, I ended up thinking of Vanellope wearing red.


	6. Chapter 6

Elsa knelt down in front of Kai as he stood in the centre of the main room. He was confused and slightly nervous about what she wanted.

“Kai,” she held back a sob, “I need to do this. Don’t worry. It’s not going to hurt you.”

“Elsa?” he asked her, “What’s going on?”

“Kai, just listen to me,” she softly gripped his right arm, “Whatever happens, however you feel about me after I’ve done this, let me reassure you – my little Kai – I’m doing this out of love.”

He just looked back at her, bewildered. She didn’t think her heart could be even more broken, but she had been proved wrong.

“Believe me, Kai,” she didn’t even try to wipe the tears that were streaming down her cheeks as she moved her hand to his chin, lifting it up so she could face him, “I can’t let you live like this.”

“Like what, Elsa?” he asked.

Elsa gently removed his eyepatch and rested her fingertips on his eyelid. Concentrating, she froze the area around his eye.

“Ow!” he shrieked, “Elsa, please stop. It hurts.”

But she had to anyway. Placing her nails on her other hand inside, the tiny area around between his eye and his skin was frozen, before she pulled it out slowly.

When the glass was finally out of his eye, Elsa gripped it in her hand. She didn’t care that it was now bleeding. Letting the frost tighten around the glass, it shattered inside her hand.

It was as if she were breaking the anger and sadness that had built up inside.

Kai held his knuckle at his eye, staring up at her and wondering why she could have done this.

Then everything started to flood back and he wondered how she could have gone such a thing to him, almost a year ago.

Stepping back, he no longer looked at her like a child to a parent, but how an innocent child would see a monster.

Elsa didn’t even try to stop him as he ran from the room and out into the cold. He started stumbling down the ice stairs, looking straight ahead, determined never to see ice again.

Elsa stood at the door, one hand resting on it. She didn’t even bother to call out for him. If he stuck to the path, he would find Arendelle eventually. The forest creatures wouldn’t even dare touch him. They were all too afraid of the Snow Queen.

Everyone was afraid of the Snow Queen.

Elsa turned and slowly shut the door. She waved her hand and every doorway and window was sealed up with ice.

Ready to spend her life in darkness, she hoped that Kai would spend the rest of his with those he loved.

She started murmuring to herself, as she stood out on the balcony and watched his small figure run through the fir trees.

_“I was the one who had it all. I was the master of my fate.  
I could hide my love for her. I learned the truth too late.  
I’ll never shake away the pain. I close my eyes and she’s still there.  
I let her steal into my melancholy heart. It’s more than I can bear.”_

By now, Kai was stumbling through the wood, pulling his jacket about himself as he tried to find a light, any light.

_“Now I know that he’ll never leave me.  
Even as he runs away.  
They will still torment me, calm me, hurt me,  
Move me, come what may.  
Wasting in my lonely castle,  
Waiting by this open door.  
I’ll fool myself…that he’ll walk right in.  
And he’ll be with me for evermore.”_

She gripped her hands against the window, letting the ice harden outside, away from anyone who might want to come in and attack. Let her live the rest of her days in misery.

_“I rage against the tides of love.  
I curse the fading of the light.  
Though he’s already flown so far beyond my reach,  
He’s never out of sight.  
Now I know he’ll never leave me,  
Even as he fades from view.  
They will still inspire me, be a part of me, in everything I do.  
Wasting in my lonely castle, waiting by an open door.  
I fool myself they’ll walk right in.  
And as the long, long nights begin  
I’ll think of all that might have been,  
Waiting here for evermore.”_

Out in the snow, Gerda held the lantern up high as the robber-girl tried reading a map. “It’s not good, though,” she had told Gerda, “and it doesn’t count for massive avalanches crushing half of the land around the mountain. There’s a store and sauna nearby, though. My dad stole most of the stuff from there. And the owner’s clothes.”

“Why?” Gerda asked, squinting as she held the lantern up higher, trying to see if there was anything on the path ahead.

“The gang wanted some skis,” the robber-girl snorted, “and being robbers, they took everything else as well.”

Then they heard a small voice calling out. “Hello? Is anybody there? I – I need help.”

“Kai?” Gerda could barely let herself hope. Then she saw him clearly.

“Kai!” she shouted, jumping down from the reindeer and running up to him.

“Gerda?” he asked. Then his eyes widened and he let tears run down his face.

The two of them hugged each other tenderly, unable to truly believe that they were with their dearest friend once again.

“How did you find me?” he managed to say at last.

“I had a bit of help,” she giggled, “oh, this is the robber-girl.”

“Hi.” The robber-girl held a hand up, lying flat across the reindeer’s back.

“Where do we go now?” Gerda asked the robber-girl.

“Anywhere far from here would be a start,” Kai grumbled, as the three of them rode down the mountain.

Further down the path, the royal horses trotted on the dirt below as a group of travellers made their way north.

“Your Highness,” a worried voice asked, “How do we know that the Snow Queen will not attack us?”

“Elsa,” Anna reminded them harshly, “will not hurt you if she sees that I am alive. Trust me in this.”


	7. Chapter 7

The royal party trekked further up the mountain. Anna felt a lump in her throat as she remembered coming here, all those years ago.

Walking up the stairs and to the door, she stood back as two of the guards moved back, either side of her. “Your Highness, we have to consider your safety,” they told her, “she is still dangerous.”

But even as they chipped away with pickaxes at the ice about the door, Elsa did not stop them.

 _Let them come,_ she thought as she sat on Kai’s bed, _Let them come and kill me._

The wolf nuzzled up to her body, confused at why his mistress was so sad. She stroked his head and then looked at the door. Whether the people intruding would give up or come in and finish her off, she did not care either way.

Eventually a figure appeared through the gap that those outside had made. Elsa did not turn around to see them, inside folding her arms.

“Come and kill me,” she sighed, “It’s what you came to do.”

“Elsa?”

Elsa raised her head slowly and then looked over her shoulder. Anna? Could it really be her sister, back from the dead?

No. The cold must have got to her. She was going insane. It couldn’t really be her. Anna was dead.

Or maybe this was her angel, taking her up to Heaven after she herself had died from the cold and loneliness.

Either way, the figure was coming closer. “Elsa?” she asked.

Elsa examined the apparition. “I know you’re not really Anna,” she spoke at last, “Anna’s dead.”

“No, Elsa, I’m alive,” Anna held her hand underneath her sister’s chin, “I’m here, Elsa.”

“No,” Elsa shook her head, “Anna’s dead. You’re her spirit.”

“Elsa…” Anna pleaded, but Elsa was stubborn. She started briskly walking towards the door.

“I’m dead and you’re here to take me. I – I took Kai because I couldn’t have you. I let him go. And now I’m dead and you’ve come back to see me.” She sighed. “I just hope you can forgive me.”

Anna was uncertain as what to say. Elsa really thought that the both of them were dead. Well, if she thought that, Anna decided, she would have to let Elsa see the truth. But not now. Elsa was too adamant that she was dead.

“Elsa,” Anna took her sister’s cold hand, “we have to go.”

“All right.” Elsa agreed, letting her sister lead her out.

Elsa did not fight the men waiting outside. Nor did she argue when Anna helped her up on a horse. They set off down the path back to Ardendelle. If Elsa comprehended that they were not flying off into the sky, she didn’t say anything.

Eventually, Anna asked her, “Where is Kai? Is he at the castle?”

“No, I let him go.”

“What?” Anna almost shrieked, pulling on the reins and causing her horse to stall. All of the others did so as well.

“He’ll be fine,” Elsa replied, “Everything in the forest is scared of the Snow Queen. So nobody will hurt him.”

“Elsa, you forgot about the streams or – the people in Ardendelle who don’t know about him.”

Awareness crept over Elsa’s face and she held her head in her hands. “Oh, I’m useless!” she howled.

“You’re not, Elsa,” Anna held her hand, “We just have to carry on looking for him. There’s plenty of us here; we can fight off anything. And you said yourself, everyone in the forest is too afraid of you to hurt Kai.”

Elsa sniffled, wiping her hand on her sleeve. Then she sat completely still, deep in thought. Slowly, she looked back towards Anna and a smile crept onto her face.

“Anna!” she hugged her tightly, almost knocking the both of them off from the horse, “You’re alive!”

“You – finally realised.” Anna mumbled, slightly shocked.

“Oh, Anna! I missed you so much!” Elsa let the tears fall down her face.

A guard coughed. “Sorry to interrupt, Your Majesties, but a young boy is still alone in the cold.”

“Oh, right,” Elsa backed away from Anna, “What now?”

“Elsa, your sleigh flies, doesn’t it?” Anna asked. Her older sister nodded. “Well, if we went back and you searched above the trees, we could have a better look. The rest of us will search through the wood.”

“Your Majesty, is it wise to split up?” a guard asked. Anna turned her horse around in response.

“Elsa, could some of the guards come on the sleigh?”

“If there’s room.” Elsa answered.

“Right, let’s go!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for this chapter being short. I am still trying to figure out the ending.


	8. Chapter 8

The royal party found the children quickly.

Gerda and Kai were riding on the reindeer, silently holding onto each other and letting themselves silently cry tears of joy. The robber-girl walked beside them, holding the rein, talking endlessly about junk that her father and his friends had stolen. She hadn’t even noticed that the other two weren’t even listening.

But when they saw the sleigh land in front of them on a ridge, with Elsa, Anna and two guards inside, Kai gripped onto Gerda.

“You! Why can’t you leave me alone?” he shouted at Elsa. Getting up from the reindeer, he glared at her, fists clenched.

“Kai, please just listen…” she started, but he only yelled at her.

“Why did you take me? You – you cold-hearted witch! You tore me from my family. You took me from my home. I – I was under your spell for a year, you wicked sorceress! I hate you!”

Elsa was gripping onto the reins so hard that frost had started to appear.

“Elsa…” Anna held a hand on her sister’s shoulder, desperate.

“Princess?” Gerda raised an eyebrow, “You’re working with the Snow Queen?” She seemed heartbroken. “You – you helped me.”

“Somebody please explain what the heck is going on, because I don’t understand a thing.” The robber-girl interjected, but yet again nobody listened to her.

Kai leapt at Elsa, ready to punch her. He didn’t care if she turned him into a snowman; he just wanted to take out all of his anger and frustration on the woman who had stolen a year of his life.

Elsa didn’t want to hurt Kai, so she simply laid back and let him hurt her. The guards tried their best to pull Kai off, but he was clawing at the Queen and tearing at her clothes.

Gerda stared, heartbroken, at the scene before her.

Anna then bellowed, “Everyone quiet!”

Everybody looked at the princess, who was a little surprised that she had actually done that.

“Gerda,” Anna went down on one knee to look the girl straight in the eye, “Elsa is my sister. I lost her, many years ago. Just how you lost Kai.”

“She…” Gerda mumbled, “wanted someone.”

“That she did,” Anna sighed, as Kai slowly let go of Elsa, “It was not right, far from it. But – everything’s better now. I promise.”

Gerda and Kai were dropped off outside of Kai’s grandmother’s home. The two children held hands and didn’t look back as they walked down the street.

Anna took her sister’s cold hand and assured her, “Everything will be fine, don’t worry.”

“Anna,” Elsa joked, “you have a group of wild robbers attacking everyone that comes by, most people see you as a giddy child and an economy that runs on ice harvesting.”

“I’d like to see you do better,” Anna chuckled, “Do you wanna build a snowman?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if this story ended too quickly, but I have been extremely busy and exhausted.


End file.
